I was in Soho today chairing a webinar with Samad Masood, a principal analyst at Ovum. At the end of the webinar I took a moment to ask him a couple of quick questions about the problems we are witnessing in the financial services industry.

In a week where Lehman Brothers has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and Merrill Lynch has been swallowed by Bank of America, I wanted to see what his views were on how this turbulence affects outsourcing suppliers.

Samad agreed there is a problem for most suppliers.

“Financial services is a significant proportion of all the large vendors’ business so the challenges we are having in financial services right now are going to affect the vendors’ business, and their approach to market,” he said.

“But we need to make it clear that not all financial services are suffering. Some sub-segments of the sector, such as insurance or regulatory and compliance – which will probably increase now – have been largely immune to these issues.

“Companies like Capgemini and Accenture are reporting growth in financial services projects, particularly where their consultants can advise on reducing cost.”

So is outsourcing a good idea now anyway? Some people in the market are telling me that companies are holding back on purchasing or strategic decisions, such as outsourcing programmes. Some suppliers are telling me they are busier than ever, with more and more enquiries about cost reduction measures. Is an economic slowdown a good or a bad thing for outsourcing suppliers?

Samad said: “It’s like any of these situations - there is never one answer for everybody. It really depends on the specific client. I don’t think all projects are going to be halted, but then I also don’t think that clients are going to suddenly invest in outsourcing either. It’s horses for courses whether the market is rising or falling.”

Samad added an interesting point about the way suppliers need to behave in a difficult business environment.

“The important thing to understand is that there is going to be more of a focus on partnership, relationships between clients and suppliers, and trust,” he said.

“That means a focus on understanding the issues of each particular client. Vendors should stop generalising across their clients and really invest in getting to know each client in more depth.”